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Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior Writer
DENVER — The NFL might be a passing league, but opponents of the Denver Broncos are doing most of their damage on the ground.
On Sunday, the New York Jets became the fourth consecutive team to rush for more than 170 yards against the Broncos and the fifth in a row to rush for at least 122 yards as the reeling Broncos dropped to 1-4.
“We haven’t done our end, that’s it, point blank, period,” safety Justin Simmons said. “All the other stuff that went on in the game, we just didn’t do our job.”
New York turned a five-point halftime deficit to the Broncos into a runaway 31-21 win, pounding out 234 rushing yards, including 150 in the second half.
The Broncos entered Sunday’s game last in the league in most of the major statistical categories on defense, including rushing defense. The last four Broncos’ opponents have now rushed for 171 yards (Washington), 350 (Miami), 171 (Chicago) and the Jets’ 234.
“We’ve got to put a complete game together and it has to be all 11 guys, you know, run game, pass game,” safety Kareem Jackson said. “We’ve got to put it together. Until we can do that, stuff like this is going to keep happening … We have to be where we’re supposed to be, be sound … We got to be all of that.”
On the other side of the ball, the Broncos offense lost three fumbles and went five consecutive drives to start the second half without a first down. The Jets had little reason to have quarterback Zach Wilson throw often.
“In the first half I felt like we defended the run well,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said. “In the second half, some of the motion, some of the gap adjustments we’re making — we get caught out of a gap on the long touchdown run.”
That long touchdown run — 72 yards by Breece Hall on the Jets’ first play from scrimmage in the second half — started a domino effect on the defense. Hall went through the middle and covered the distance to the end zone without actually making contact with any defenders.
“Nothing [changed in the second half], we choked,” Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton said.
The Broncos never regained their balance after Hall’s jaunt and they know opponents will be taking note.
The Dolphins and the Jets have now run the ball more than they have thrown it against the Broncos while the Bears had only four more passing attempts than rushing attempts, a nod to the 50-50 run-pass ratios put in the rearview mirror by most NFL playcallers long ago.
“Teams are being creative and we’ve got to have a response,” Simmons said. “Ten guys can do the right thing, and if one guy is not, you get gashed. I think we all saw that [Sunday].”
Hall had three runs of at least 16 yards in the game and the Jets had one 11-play scoring drive in the second quarter with one pass attempt. He finished with 177 yards on 22 carries. Hall is the fourth opponent to average at least 5.3 yards per carry this season and the second in the last three games to average at least 7.3 yards per carry.
The Broncos are losing the battle on the interior too often, getting pushed off the edges and missing tackles. Teams have had success much of the season pounding away at the Broncos’ nickel personnel grouping (five defensive backs), but the Jets consistently carved out room, including Hall’s 72-yarder, against the Broncos’ base defense.
“In the second half, I never felt like we defended the run the way we did in the first half,” Payton said. “That was troubling … I don’t know what changed … but obviously we didn’t play as well in the second half. I know we got out of a gap on the long run, that was pretty clear from the pictures.”
“We’ve got to figure it out,” Singleton said.
The Broncos have to now face the Kansas City Chiefs twice, including this Thursday night at Arrowhead Stadium, and the Green Bay Packers before they get to their Week 9 bye with the Buffalo Bills waiting after that. The Chiefs and Bills are among the league’s top 10 in rushing.
“No one cares what ails us, they want to see production, that’s the business we’re in,” Payton said. ” … No one’s going to hand to you, not in this league, we all know that.”
